Scone

Select Society

ADFAS Scone provides for its members a yearly programme of eight illustrated lectures given by overseas and Australian lecturers chosen for their communication skills and expert knowledge in their fields.

Committee 2019

Chairman:Kerry CookePh: (0428 458 141)

Vice Chairman:Sue Adams

Secretary:Hilary Nicol

Treasurer:Sarah Howey

Membership Secretary:Pieternella Jarvie

Membership Enquiries: scone@adfas.org.au

Programme for 2019

March 5th Arts & Crafts Hall, Kingdon Street, Scone

Understanding Cubism

Dr Jacqueline COCKBURN PhD

The Lecture: One of the most cryptic movements in art will be explained through a variety of means. This lecture will consider the language we need to understand Cubist works and to be able to find meaning. It will explore the working relationship of Picasso and Braque after the painting of Les Demoiselles D’Avignon and also show other so-called Salon Cubists such as Léger and Juan Gris who made Cubism more palatable for its audience.

The Lecturer: Jacqueline is Managing Director of Art and Culture Andalucia. She runs residential courses in Andalucia, Southern Spain, in the art and culture of the region. Jacqueline also works in London as a freelance lecturer. Her specialist field is Spanish Art but she also lectures in European Art 1790-1950. She took her first degree in Modern Languages, then an MA in Sao Paulo Brazil on Applied Linguistics. Her Art History degree and PhD were taken at London University. Her doctoral thesis was on Frederico Garcia Lorca’s drawings as gifts, citations and exchanges.

April 9th Arts & Crafts Hall, Kingdon Street, Scone

Creative Bill Paying

Fran WACHTEL

The Lecture: Creative Bill Paying. Fran will talk about the realities of surviving off her creative wits for 35 years and the journey it has taken her on.

The Lecturer: Fran Studied ceramics in Melbourne in the late ‘70s spending time working at commercial potteries at Berwick, Omeo and Weddenburn. She moved to western New South Wales in 1983 where she set up a pottery specialising in small ceramic sculptures. In 1988 she began dabbling in bronze and pewter with Glen Young of Precious Possessions. In 1990 she moved to Murrurundi and was accepted by Esther Bellis as a student to learn bronze sculpture. In 2001 she began collaborating with Charlotte Drake-Brockman with whom she has worked in scrap metal sculpture. The two have been involved in many exhibitions including ‘Balance’ at the Maitland Art Gallery and ‘Sheep Shape’ in the Rocks, Sydney and have created the Murrurundi town signs and installations in Merriwa, at Blandford Public School and Murrurundi Public School.

May 7th Upper Hunter Shire Council, Liverpool St, Scone

From Paris to New York: The Story of American Impressionism

Mr Bernard ALLAN MA BA (Hons)

The Lecture: Only one American, Mary Cassatt, exhibited with the Impressionist group in Paris but, by the mid 1880s American Impressionism had become an important art form in the US, inspired by, but not imitating the French prototype.

Artists such as Childe Hassan successfully blended their academic training with the vitality of Impressionism, which they had encountered on their European travels, to produce paintings that conveyed the dynamism of the new country and its rapidly expanding cities, especially New York.

Simultaneously, painters like Theodore Robinson, who had been inspired by Monet at Giverny, based themselves in artists’ colonies on the east coast of America. Here they found subject matter for paintings with a sense of nostalgia for the way of life that was fast disappearing as the traditional industries of fishing and agriculture were supplanted by the influx of tourists. Meanwhile John Henry Twachtman drew on diverse influences to produce wonderfully evocative winter scenes.

Impressionism remained popular with American artists until the 1920s, although by the early 20th century the style had been supplanted in status by the new urban realists.

The Lecturer: Bernard Allan has a BA (Hons) in History and an MA (Distinction) in History of Art. Following a successful business career he spent several years teaching art history for the WEA (adult education) and is now an independent art history tutor. He has been a NADFAS/Arts Society lecturer for several years, specialising in the work of European women artists and also American art. He has lectured widely to local organisations and guided parties around art galleries in London and Paris.

June 11th Arts & Crafts Hall, Kingdon Street, Scone

White Gums and Ramoxes: ceramics by Arthur and Merric Boyd

Grace COCHRANE PhD

The Lecture: Selected by Grace Cochrane from the Bundanon Trust Collection, in Nowra, NSW, this exhibition toured in 2009-2011. The talk offers an illustrated story of researching the collection, deciding on the content based on the relationship between Arthur Boyd and his father, Merric, and working behind the scenes while taking the exhibition on tour.

The Lecturer: Now an independent curator and writer, until 2005 Grace Cochrane was senior curator of Australian decorative arts and design at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. She is the author of The Crafts Movement in Australia: a History (NSW University Press, 1992), and for over 35 years has spoken about the crafts and design, written for a range of publications and been a board member of a number of professional organisations.

Born in New Zealand, she has a BFA, MFA (1984, 1986) and PhD (1999) from the University of Tasmania; and in 2007 was awarded a D.Litt by the University of New South Wales. She received the Australia Council’s VACB Emeritus medal in 2001, and in 2010 was appointed an Adjunct Professor at the Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, and Visiting Professor, University of Lincoln, UK.

July 9th Arts & Crafts Hall, Kingdon Street, Scone

Heaven’s Embroidered Cloth – The History and Development of Imperial Chinese Silk.

Mr David ROSIER

The Lecture: Initial consideration focuses on the period of Neolithic times (4000BC) through to the Ming Dynasty in 1368 and traces the establishment of Imperial Weaving and Embroidery Workshops producing regulated Court Costume and decorative textiles for Imperial Palaces. The technological and artistic skills required for this “industry” to flourish will be explored as will the relationship of the Imperial Workshops with commercial weavers and embroiderers.

Particular focus will be given to the development within the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties regarding the Imperial Workshops that were producing an ever-increasing range of silk fabrics and in the role of commercial workshops in supporting Imperial, domestic and export demand.

The lecture is illustrated with fabrics, costumes and decorative textiles which represent the pinnacle of the weavers and embroiderers art and expertise.

The Lecturer: David Rosier is a chartered insurer by profession and a Fellow of the Assurance Medical Society, with extensive international experience as an author and lecturer in Medical Risk Assessment. Whilst living in Hong Kong (1991-2004) he assembled a collection of approximately 700, predominantly Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Imperial and related textiles/costume and dress accessories. David is a Past Committee member of the Hong Kong Textile Society and a frequent speaker on Chinese Imperial Insignia of Rank, Court Costume and Dress Accessories plus the Structure and Mechanics of the Imperial Government and the Emperors of the Qing Dynasty.

August 13th Arts & Crafts Hall, Kingdon Street, Scone

Jewelled Journeys – The Art of Opulent Travel

Mr Andrew PRINCE

The Lecture: Throughout history, travelling has been used to display wealth, power, status as well as a useful tool to control over mighty subjects.

Today, we take a journey as a matter of course, not thinking much of a distance of 100 miles or more. In the past it was very different as an Aristocrat had to take not only clothes, but food, furniture, cooking facilities, tents, and the like, not just for himself and family but his household as well.

In this talk, Andrew shows the many lavish and opulent accessories and modes of transport that were used by Monarchs and Aristocracy alike, to ease travel while on the seasonal “progress” to and from each others’ estates, and where diplomatic meetings between kings turned into a contest of rivals to see who could outdo each other in the finest accommodation, jewels, silks, retinue and luggage train.

The Lecturer: Andrew’s taste for fine ‘costume jewellery’ can be traced back to an antique market, where he came across a late Victorian brooch set with what he initially thought were emeralds and diamonds. They were, in fact, crystal and green glass set in silver and gold. He realised that beautiful jewellery didn’t require expensive stones, and that it was the elegance of the design and the quality of the workmanship that truly mattered. Private commissions then started to trickle in. The trickle turned into a flood, as celebrities such as Michael Jackson (a large crystal and pearl shoulder jewel) and Shirley Bassey (necklaces) were seen wearing Andrew’s creations.

In 2002, the V&A commissioned a collection of jewels to accompany the resplendent tiaras, Past and Present exhibition which became one of their most popular exhibits. The exposure gained by the show then led to Andrew’s jewellery appearing in film.

In 2005, he was asked to make tiaras and jewellery for Mrs Henderson Presents starring Judy Dench. In 2009 pieces were commissioned for The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Miranda Richardson. In 2012, he was chosen by the creators of Downton Abbey to supply a large collection of jewellery for the third series. The characters played by Maggie Smith, Shirley Maclaine, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery were all adorned with elegant tiaras.

September 10th Upper Hunter Shire Council, Liverpool Street, Scone

Zaha Hadid – architectural superstar

Mr Colin DAVIES

The Lecture: Dame Zaha Hadid died on March 31st 2016 at the age of 65. Architectural historians of the future will surely recognise her as one of the most important architects of the early 21st century. She was born in Iraq and her reputation was global, but she made Britain her home. This lecture tells the story of her career from the visionary projects of the 1980s, through the years of frustration when her designs were considered unbuildable, to the prolific crop of successful projects built all over the world in the last decade of her life.

The Lecturer: Colin Davies is an architect, a former editor of Architects’ Journal and a regular contributor to architectural magazines worldwide. He was until recently Professor of Architectural Theory at London Metropolitan University. He made numerous TV and radio appearances. His books include ‘A New History of Modern Architecture’, ‘Thinking about Architecture’, ‘The Prefabricated Home’, ‘High Tech Architecture’, ‘Key Houses of the Twentieth Century’ and several monographs on the work of architects such as Norman Foster, Michael Hopkins and Nicholas Grimshaw.

October 8th Arts & Crafts Hall, Kingdon Street, Scone

Canaletto and His Rivals

Mr Anthony RUSSELL

The Lecture: Following the National Gallery of London’s exhibition of the same title, this lecture gives a heady mixture of ‘superstar’ painter, immensely rich patrons on the move and a city whose modern faith hides behind a romantic mask. Though some were little better than modern hooligans, many a grand tourist was highly sophisticated and had a lasting impact on Venice and how it is perceived today. These are magical paintings by an Italian artist greatly influenced by British taste and Britain boasts the greatest collection of his works, both in public and private hands. While these views depict a serene dreamland and have always been highly prized, Venice is now in serious trouble and needs a truly global cooperation to save it from sinking forever.

The Lecturer: Anthony Russell is a cultural historian, writer and artist. He spent six years as a consultant for Luke Hughes advising on the furniture needs of prestigious buildings throughout Britain, including museums, palaces, schools and cathedrals. Now based in London, he spends much of his time lecturing and undertaking research, while assisting at the British Museum with outreach events and visiting lecturers. Committed to the ‘search for civilsation’ and as an advocate of nonviolence, he is the founder of the Chandos, on the committee for Uniting for Peace and a contributor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma. He is author of the book ‘Evolving the Spirit – From Democracy to Peace’, commended by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate, as meaning a great deal to her.